I’ve talked about this alot in the past two years, but when my depression and anxiety striked me, I had also started to have so much trouble reading.. While I can swear that I wasn’t that slow of a reader, it took me MONTHS to finish a single book — If I even got to the “finish line”. My concentration and imagination took a harsh hit; I wasn’t able to *SEE* the words being acted in my head anymore.. which was my favorite thing- because looking at words on a page? and being *conscious* of it ?? Hell I hated that.
While in high school, I could read 2-3 books simultaneously (One for french class, one for english class and THEN one for pleasure).. I could even read while having music on!
Being a reader for as long as I could remember… this was something very hard to live with and endure, I had lost my greatest ability; and I DID NOT wanted to lose something as precious as enjoying reading, as my godmother has passed it down to me.
Of course, I decided blogging so i’d FINALLY have people to chat books with — because, along with having barely only one friend, I has nobody to talk books with.. like the majority of us, it seems!
But over that, it was a little “push” for me to finally getting my reading abilities back. My very first chaotic review that I’ve post right after creating my blog has been “Sweet Thing”; Which believe it or not, has been the FIRST BOOK in about a year that I had finished cover-to-cover, and had gotten so much INTO IT that it made me feel all the feels!!! and although it might seems a little “overreacting”, I was so so proud of that.
And that was only the beginning- Two years after creating my blog, only a mere few days ago, I hit one of the exciting milestone!! Not only was I able to read fantasy; as of which the first tome of that particular serie had given me lot of trouble understanding (fantasy + second language) .. BUT I am able to read chunks of 25%. at. a.time.!!
Although the bad thing about this is that erm.. I mostly read thoses at night-time, because far less distractions to start with.. so you can bet it still takes me quite some time to *get* to finish my chunck of 25% in that sitting -Which got me to stay up passed 2-3am reading.. woops- But it stays that it’s the most that i’ve read of a book in one sitting.. and that means i’m improving!! 🥰
List of my overall achievements since blogging;
♥ Finishing whole books again, only few DNFs compared to before I started. As of which, I’ve read a total of 20+ books in the past two years! (while still not being “huge”, i’ll take it. Opposed to 1-2, it’s still big for me!)
♥ Discovered new genres that I liked (related; Genres I never knew prior to blogging)
♥ Going over my prior “restriction”, and started reading in english — my second language; all books that I had read before had been french
♥ Started reading and loving E-books, recently joined the audio-books too
♥ This one is not solely about books, though it did helped me LOTS to remember what had happened in the two previous book while reading the third tome, I seem to remember things so much better ! I noticed that at work, actually; we got new recipes and after I’ve done it maybe 2-3times I knew it by heart already..
Of course, I still run into some troubles here and then – thus having still some way to go, but Still!! We’re seeing some bits of improvements here. We all gotta start somewhere ❤️
Did your reading improved aswell since you’ve started blogging?
I’ve read more books and I’ve started reading few ARCs but I don’t think my reading has otherwise improved. I am more ready to go out of my comfort though. I don’t try to avoid friends to lovers trope as much as I used to.
That’s great!
even if it’s small, it’s a start! xx
youre doing amazingly kristina!
Thank you Lauren 🥰 xx
Congrats! I can’t imagine losing my…. imagination… while reading. That’s always been my lifeline.
I wish I could say the same, but as my health fluctuates and slowly worsens, I have issues blogging/writing reviews. As I struggle there, my reading slows. Recently, its gotten much worse, and Ive thought about stopping my blogging and reviewing. Still on the fence there. When things are going rough, I can’t think well enough to write the reviews. My memory takes such a hit.
Before I started reviewing/ blogging, I often read a fiction and a nonfic book at the same time, and clear 15-20 books a month. Now it’s just one at a time and I’m getting lucky to get 10 books a month, excluding kids books. (I’m not quite sure how I niched myself there 😆😆)
So, um…. I think I’m the opposite of you 😂. Blogging has made me read less.
Yeah it’s really rough! I hated it.
Oh noo- im so sorry! Seeing it deteriorate is the worst, although you have a « good » reason as when you’re sick sometimes you don’t feel like doing things like that..